Jesus the "storyteller" is a myth.

Aesop. Shakespeare. Edgar Allen Poe. Hemingway. Dostoevsky. Dr. Seuss.

What do these names have in common?

They were storytellers. They wrote great stories (who says "Cat in the Hat" doesn't compare with "Crime and Punishment?") and they used those stories to make points.

Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet to illustrate the power of love and the destructiveness of hatred. Dostoevsky wrote to convey the depravity of the human soul. Dr. Seuss wrote so that you and I could learn to read. Poe wrote to scare the crap out of us.

If you listen to most modern day preachers, commentators, or religious writers the name of Jesus Christ deserves to be on that list. They love to reference the "stories" of Jesus.

By "stories," of course, they are referencing the parables of Jesus.

They tell us that he told stories to get his message across in a relevant way. They tell us he told stories because he was a visual person. They tell us he told stories so that the simplest people could understand. They tell us he told stories to model the kind of preaching and teaching he wanted his followers to do.

One website that serves as a story database for pastors even uses this tag line to pimp their own stories, "Jesus told stories so why shouldn't we?"

But Jesus was not a storyteller. He was not an Aesop. He was not a Hemingway. He was not (shocker) a Poe.

Jesus did not tell "stories" he told parables. I know at this point you might feel the need to roll your eyes and say, "What's the difference?" But there is a difference and it is much more important than what we call Jesus' tales.

In fact, if you read the Gospels and come away thinking Jesus was a "storyteller" then I would go so far as to say you are missing a very powerful truth that would bless your life.

Let's look at Matthew 13:10-13

Then the disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but form the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

The disciples wanted to know why Jesus always spoke in parables. It is clear that they thought the parables were more like riddles than stories because on multiple occasions they had to ask Jesus something like, "What the heck are you talking about?" (see Matthew 13:26-43 and Luke 8:9-15)

And Jesus gave them a simple answer. I speak in riddles because I don't want everyone to understand what I am saying. He tells the disciples that it has been given to you to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven but to them it has not been given.

He says that he speaks in parables because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand. If you read through that reasoning you might be tempted to say that Jesus is saying he speaks in parables because the people are stupid and they can't see, hear, or understand otherwise, but if you read Luke's account of this conversation in Luke 8 it becomes a little clearer.

To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand.

Luke records Jesus saying "so that" instead of "because" and that pretty much clears it up.

Jesus spoke in riddles because he was speaking to a targeted group and not speaking to a targeted group.

This whole thing reminds a lot of what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.

Paul knew he, like Jesus, spoke to two groups every time he preached the gospel: those to whom the secrets had been revealed and those to whom they had not. Some had "ears to hear" and "eyes to see" and to others the gospel served only as an aroma of death to death.

What is my point?

Simple. If you are reading my blog and you are a follower of Jesus Christ then realize this simple biblical reality: you are only a follower of Christ because you have been given the secrets of God. You only hear and see the kingdom of God because it has been given to you to do both.

Have you stopped to thank God for the grace He has shown you in revealing his message to you?

Have you stopped to thank God for the fact that you are not one of the ones to whom the gospel has been hidden?

If not then do it now. What a gracious God!